The present disclosure relates generally to medical devices and, more particularly, to systems and methods of monitoring autoregulation.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
In the field of medicine, medical professionals often desire to monitor certain physiological parameters of their patients. In some cases, clinicians may wish to monitor a patient's autoregulation. Autoregulation is a physiological process that attempts to maintain an optimal cerebral blood flow to supply appropriate levels of oxygen and nutrients to the brain. During autoregulation, cerebral arterioles dilate or constrict to maintain optimal blood flow. For example, as cerebral pressure decreases, cerebral arterioles dilate in an attempt to maintain blood flow. As cerebral pressure increases, cerebral arterioles constrict to reduce the blood flow that could cause injury to the brain. If the patient's autoregulation process is not functioning properly, the patient may experience inappropriate cerebral blood flow, which may have negative effects on the patient's health. In particular, a drop in cerebral blood flow may cause ischemia, which may result in tissue damage or death of brain cells. An increase in cerebral blood flow may cause hyperemia, which may result in swelling of the brain or edema.
Some existing systems for monitoring autoregulation may determine a patient's autoregulation status based on a correlation coefficient. However, such a correlation coefficients may be subject to various sources of error. Furthermore, many data points may be required to reliably calculate such correlation coefficients. Accordingly, an extended period of time (e.g., several minutes, or even hours) may pass before such systems are able to provide a reliable indication of the patient's autoregulation status. In certain clinical settings, the extended time for determining whether the patient's autoregulation is intact or impaired may affect patient care and outcomes. Therefore, systems and methods for efficiently and reliably determining the patient's autoregulation status are provided herein.